Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

Los Angeles County health officials on Thursday installed a temporary management team to oversee operations at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center after the hospital received an "unfavorable" assessment that may force the closure of 18 medical residency programs, the Los Angeles Times reports (Ornstein/Weber, Los Angeles Times, 10/24). The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education on Wednesday issued the unfavorable assessment, which King/Drew officials have several months to appeal (California Healthline, 10/23). The four-member management team will examine problems with the King/Drew residency programs and develop a proposal to address them, as well as a proposal to reduce the hospital budget by 5% next year as part of a county mandate to become more efficient. The team also will transfer the King/Drew human resources office to the county Department of Health Services because the office has "backlogs" in a number of areas, such as "processing new hires, completing performance evaluations and addressing other personnel matters," the Times reports. The team will likely remain in place until the county hires permanent replacements for the CEO and medical director positions at King/Drew; the current interim CEO and medical director have held their positions since February 2002 and October 2002, respectively. The county may hire a new medical director at King/Drew within the next few months, but the search for a new CEO remains in the early stages (Los Angeles Times, 10/24).

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